Sunshine Days - Chapter 2
When Jonathan awoke the next morning in a strange bed, he was greeted by two things: One, the unpleasant sensation of cold, wet fabric sticking to his fur and two, the equally unpleasant laughter of other cubs. Thoughts slowly formed in his semi-conscious brain, still foggy from his drug induced sleep. His initial thought of the day was accurate: 'Oh no, I wet the bed.'
There was more malicious laughter as he opened his eyes. "Hey! Kitty wet the bed!" Someone jeered between laughs. "What a baby!"
With his eyes now open and awake, he saw the Rottweiler pup hanging on his ladder, laughing in his face. He looked down at his lap and saw a dark stain on the covers like a green badge of weakness. Jonathan blushed deeply, turning his white ears a deep red. He couldn't understand how he could have wet the bed. He didn't have a weak bladder and he always took sleeping medication but it never hindered him from waking up to go to the bathroom. He trembled and tried to keep his burning eyes from crying but he could feel them tearing up.
"What's going on in here?" a voice boomed from the doorway. "I thought I told you boys to get a move on!" It was Camp Counselor Eddie.
"Jonathan wet the bed!" the pup called over his shoulder. He turned back and smirked at him, "Wet the bed like a little baby!"
"Avery, that's enough! You and your brother go to the Lodge. I'll take care of this," the Counselor said.
Avery, the Rottweiler, and his younger brother Joey made their way out of the cabin. He could still hear them laughing outside.
Eddie came into the cabin and sighed a little. "It's alright, John," the bear spoke softly, "Let's take these covers off and get you a shower. I'll have the cook save you some breakfast."
Eddie smiled with his muzzle but his eyes read of patient frustration, like there was always at least one bed wetter every year.
Jonathan nodded and pulled back the covers. The front of his nightshirt was almost completely soaked with urine as was his crotch. He slid out of bed and down the ladder, grimacing at the cold, wet fabric clinging to him.
Jonathan, still clad in his piss-soaked pajamas, was marched across the campgrounds by Eddie to the Showers. The walk was a little more forgiving than he anticipated. Mostly everyone was in the Lodge eating breakfast. Despite the fact that no one saw him on the way to the Showers, he still felt deeply humiliated by the experience.
Eddie led him around to the side of the building to the Boy's entrance. Jonathan noted the cracked, yellowed walls on the outside and clumps of weeds growing around it. He braced himself, expecting the worst possible conditions inside. To his surprise, it was relatively well kept but still not ideal. There was a light aroma of bleach and the funk of ancient sweat permeated into the featureless brick walls.
Jonathan's heart sunk when he saw the showers. He had hoped for shower stalls with curtains and little places to hold your soap and shampoo. What he got was a communal shower not unlike the ones at his school, which fortunately for him never got to use on account that it was being used to hold P.E. supplies.
"Leave your pajamas in that hamper over there," the bear said, pointing at the large, wheeled basket in the corner. "I'll have someone come in and wash them later. Here's a clean set of clothes."
Eddie laid a pair of gym shorts and a tee shirt with the Camp Sunshine Days logo on it down on the wooden bench in front of the lockers. Without another word, Eddie turned and made his way back to the Main Lodge. Jonathan stood there, taking a moment to absorb the surroundings and his situation. He felt uncomfortable with the prospects of stripping naked and taking a shower unless he knew he was completely alone. He wandered around the locker room, peering around the corners to make sure he had privacy in his domain.
Satisfied that he was alone, he padded back to the hamper and took off his cold, damp pajamas. He shivered, both at the feeling of cold air on his exposed, clammy fur and at the odd feeling that he was being watched. He knew he was being silly but he felt like there were hundreds of invisible eyes watching him as he peeled the underwear off his body.
He threw the pajamas in the hamper and hastily made his way into the showers. He instinctively covered his privates with his paws in an act of self consciousness, still feeling the prickly feeling of being watched on the back of his neck. He needed to get this shower over as quick as possible.
He stepped under the nearest showerhead, which reminded him vaguely of a Dalek's eyestalk pointed down and coldly judging him. "Exterminate," Jonathan mumbled with a smile and he turned on the hot and cold taps. The shower sputtered and sprayed ice cold water. He jumped back instinctively and waited for the water to warm up before crawling back under the shower.
He purred softly as the water soaked through his fur and warmed his flesh. Unlike his common feral ancestors, most feline furs actually did enjoy the water. He felt relief wash over him; Eddie, Avery, and the wet clothes a distant memory in his head as he stood under the warm cascade of water. He was rubbed shampoo into his fur when he heard a noise come from the locker room. It sounded like echoing footfalls. Jonathan snapped out of his shower induced daze and pricked his ears up. The fur on his neck stood up defensively and he looked over his shoulder at the entrance.
Much to Jonathan's chagrin, a familiar bull terrier appeared in the entryway and strolled in coolly.
"Hey! How's it hangin'?" David said, wearing nothing but a grin.
Jonathan felt a mixture of embarrassment and annoyance, wondering why this pup had to be so invasive with personal space. He turned his head so he didn't have to look at the naked David.
"Fine," he answered curtly, his voice wavering a little.
The pup strode in confidently and took the showerhead next to his. Jonathan, now aggravated and blushing deep red, turned his body slightly away from the pup and kept washing himself. He wasn't just embarrassed because they were both naked together or that David decided to take the nearest shower as possible, but also because he noticed he was getting slightly erect at the thought of it. He didn't know what it was that was giving him that erection and he was attempting to hide his semi-erect penis from the pup.
Jonathan started puberty at the age of 12, getting constant erections like most boys his age and usually at the most inopportune times. He rarely had fantasies or ogled at girls when he got his them; most of the time they were caused by a physical sensation rather than a mental or visual one. He switched from boxers to briefs because the sensation of fabric rubbing against his penis would often get him noticeably hard. But there in the showers had an erection just by the thought of David being there with him, naked.
"Why aren't you with everybody else eating breakfast?" Jonathan asked, his face burning and his young feline cock pointing out and bobbing softly. He felt a little flame of anger flaring up.
"I wanted to hang out with you," David replied genially, rubbing shampoo into his armpits.
Jonathan didn't bother to ask why or how he knew he was in the showers or why his idea of hanging out consisted of being uncomfortably candid about body exposure around him. He closed his eyes and counted backwards from a hundred in his head, a tactic he used to quell unwanted erections. It worked and his dick deflated back down between his legs. He finished rinsing himself off and quickly made his way out of the shower room, grabbing a towel from the metal rack on the way out. He was careful not to slip on the floor as he left David to continue showering.
He dried himself off, feeling a little sick over what just happened. His knees shook slightly and his heart was still racing. He felt his chest starting to seize up and his breaths becoming shallower. He had left his emergency inhaler back at the cabin and now he wished that he had thought to bring it with him. Stress often triggered his minor asthma attacks and the heavy, suffocating steam from the showers didn't help. He quickly got dressed, even though his fur was still very damp, and focused on controlling his breathing. He thought dreamily of his inhaler like a glass of ice cold lemonade after a hot day of mowing a yard.
He felt his chest loosening up a little as he calmed down but his paws still trembled. David appeared in the entryway and leaned against the frame with his shoulder. For the first time Jonathan saw David fully naked and not just from side glances. David was big. Not big as in 'fat' but big as in 'bulky'. He had enough weight on him that he could pass for a football player in a few years time. He had a round little gut and chest muscles. His arms and legs were thick and muscular. His fur was almost all white except for a few brown splotches on his fur, one around his left eye. The short white fur grew shorter around his groin, almost fading to pink on his thick sheath. That was also the first time Jonathan had seen an actual sheath. He knew that some furs had sheaths, particularly canines, while humans, felines, and other furs didn't. Having a human-shaped, outer penis was another trait that felines didn't share with their common feral ancestors.
Jonathan quickly averted his gaze, his panic firing up again.
"I was thinkin' maybe we could hang out after the swimming lessons today," the pup offered casually. He reached over and grabbed a towel, lightly patting off his short fur.
Jonathan felt his chest closing up again and his head getting dizzy. "Yeah, sure..." he said, standing up and making his way to the door. He only focused on getting his inhaler as quickly as possible.
He barely heard David say, "Cool! Awesome!" as he started walking faster, trying not to agitate his asthma further.
The trip back to the cabin was tedious and painful. The air felt muggier and hotter as he walked and his breath grew shorter. He was afraid that he would pass out before he could get to the cabin. He saw a few cubs milling around the Main Lodge and Commons, chatting and waiting around for the day's sermon and figured one of them might be a good Samaritan should he collapse.
Jonathan made it to the cabin and tore open his duffle bag, frantically searching through it in a fevered desperation. He felt a jolt of ecstatic joy when his paw closed around the plastic inhaler and the cool metal canister. He put the bit in his maw and pushed the canister down, releasing a stale, medicinal tasting blast into his lungs which he graciously sucked. He held it in his lungs for a moment before releasing it slowly. His chest stopped seizing and his breathing became normal again. He slumped back into the corner and let himself relax. He fondled the inhaler in his paws, focusing on his regular breathing. His mind kept wandering back to that image of the naked teen, burned deep into his brain. He felt his crotch stirring again against his will and he shook his head, trying to rid himself of that image.
He stuffed the inhaler in his pocket and pulled out his allergy medication and multivitamins. He took one of each dry, grimacing as he swallowed and forced them down his throat. He got up and headed to the Main Lodge for a glass of water and a late breakfast.
~~~
The camp congregated in the Main Lodge for the daily sermon, Helpers and Leaders included. The sermons would normally last about 30 minutes; they'd open and close with a prayer and throw in a few songs to keep everyone awake. Attending the sermons was mandatory because they would take attendance every morning just to count all the heads. Everything else from the activities to meals was purely optional.
Pastor Durham stepped up to the podium and gently tapped his finger the mic to get everyone's attention. The crowd quieted and their attention was turned to the front. Jonathan and David were sitting together near the back.
"Good morning and welcome to another beautiful, God-given day, cubs," the elder fox said warmly into the mic, "Let us all stand and bow our heads in prayer."
Pastor Durham led everyone into prayer, asking God to bless the day and to watch over their activities, and then they sang a couple songs before allowing the cubs to sit back down.
"Water," Durham said with quiet wonder, "Isn't it a wonderful thing?"
"You don't normally stop and think about it but...without water, none of us would even be here. Our bodies are almost 60 percent water, you know. You could survive without food for a month at most but water? You'd only last a week! You'd shrivel up and wither away!"
A few chuckled from the audience. Durham smiled.
"The Earth's surface is covered in over 70 percent of water and only a percent of that safe for us to drink. Can anyone tell me why?"
A girl near the front raised her paw. Durham pointed at her.
"Because most of the water is from the ocean and has salt?"
"That's right. Most of the safe water we can drink comes from lakes and rivers and glaciers. Of all the water available on Earth, only a portion of a percent is safe for us to drink. Think of that the next time you turn on the tap and leave it running."
He paused to shuffle his notes.
"Water...it can give life and it can take life. It can heal and soothe, quench dehydration, or suffocate and burn. You can play and swim in it. You can boil it, freeze it, or evaporate it. What a miraculous thing, water."
David leaned over to Jonathan and mumbled, "If he says water one more time, I'm gonna lose it."
Jonathan put a paw over his muzzle, trying to suppress a fit of giggles. One of the leaders standing behind the two shushed them.
"I suppose that's a reason why water is so important in the Bible," Durham said, holding up a leather bound Bible for emphasis. "From the very beginning, God summoned the Earth out of water. In the beginning, the earth was formless and empty and covered in deep waters. The spirit of God was there, hovering over the vast ocean of nothingness. He created light and separated night from day and it was good. He separated the seas from the sky and it was good. Then, he called up dry ground from the water and called it 'land' and he called the gathered waters 'sea'. And it was good."
A loud snort came from the back pews were David and Jonathan were sitting followed by a loud, "Shhh!"
Durham continued, "From the very beginning, there was water. Water is essential to our existence. Not only can it give life and take life, but it can cleanse and purify. In Hebrews, verse 10:22 says, 'Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.' Not only is water needed for our survival, but it is also needed for purifying our souls."
Pastor Durham closed his sermon with another prayer and a couple of announcements. Fortunately, there wasn't another sing along after the sermon and everyone was allowed to leave. David and Jonathan left for their afternoon swimming lessons out on the dock before coming back for lunch.